Quotes & Testimonials

Hi Jamie & John,

I have some exciting feedback to share with you. So I went for my monthly sports massage today. You should know that I have been going to the same lady once per month for the past 5 years. I love going to her because she knows my body and my training so well and has really helped me through several race seasons injury free. Anyhow, I went to see her today and she made the comment that I have built a lot of muscle mass in my upper body! I was so excited to hear that from someone who knows my muscles so well! I see my body everyday, so sometimes I don’t notice changes or differences as quickly as others do. This was the highlight of my day. So, thank you again for all the challenging and fun workouts and for always pushing me to be tougher and stronger. You guys are awesome!

Mel

About two months ago I started doing weighted, full-range squats. This was counter to any advice I’d received from any orthopedic surgeon or physical therapist in the last four years.

In 2006 I had my left ACL replaced and, as is always the case, some of my menisci cut out or repaired. In 2007 I had my right ACL replaced and my menisci worked on. Between the first surgery and the second, I ran a total of about 30 miles. Prior to the surgeries, my annual mileage topped 500 on a slow year. In the three years following the second surgery, I ran a total of about 10 miles. My main reason for dropping running from my workout routine was that it caused pain in my knee joint; usually originating directly behind my patella, or giving me the sensation that I’d just re-injured one of my compromised menisci.

I started playing racquetball even before the surgeries, playing up to four hours a night on five days of the week in 2002 and 2003. I’d let this go to the wayside from 2004-2007 mainly due to constraints on my schedule due to a combination of increased workload and babies being born. After the surgery, I reintroduced myself to the court figuring that there would at LEAST be less shock than I would have to endure to truly run.

Between 2008 and 2010 I played a lot of racquetball (and maintained my sporadic approach to my physical therapy exercises) and was forced to take a month off every three or four months due to another injury, usually to one of my knees. Last fall Jamie and I were discussing the motion that one should go through when conducting a squat. She was of the mindset that a full-range squat is the only way to go.

“She’s crazy!” I could hear my orthopedic surgeon, various physical therapists, multiple nurses and medical aides, and fellow knee-injury-sufferers sing in my head (usually complete with image straight out of the Bohemian Rhapsody video). “This is the EXACT opposite of what I’ve told you to do,” said my physical therapist. “NEVER break the 90 degree plane! You’ll re-injure yourself and it’ll be your own fault! More surgeries will come! More time softening up your midsection while you sit on the couch and recover from a major invasion to your body! Your immune system will be grossly compromised YET AGAIN! Do you really want to deal with that?!?”

So our conversation continued. Jamie was pretty convinced of the benefits, and I was pretty convinced that I’d die and go to hell if I did full-range squats. So we ended in a stalemate of sorts, with her promising to send me some of the research on the subject.

About a week later she did, and I read through it. Being the man I am I read through the papers, which focused on explaining both the physics of the movement and the physiology behind the squat. It definitely made sense, but I still had the Nay-Say Choir ringing loud and clear in my head.

BUT! With an explanation which married up both the physiology and the physics of the movement, AND made sense to me, I had to at least give it a shot.

So I promised Jamie I’d do so. I put it off for about a month (What can I say? I love a good choir!) until one day I decided to do one of her workouts. In this particular workout, Jamie had inserted squats. Now I had a quandry. Do I do them like she wants, or listen to conventional wisdom? I ended up giving them a shot.

Truth be told, my knees didn’t love me that day. They definitely let me know I was stepping outside my comfort zone (Four years on the couch? My comfort zone was supine!) but they never gave me that telling sort of pain that an athlete experiences just before a serious work-out related injury. So I kept doing the full-range squats through the workout, and kept getting the same sort of physiological feedback. I walked home on shaky knees that day, I’ll tell you.

The next day, however, was a totally different story. My knees and legs felt GREAT! I was in shock! Surely this must be my body responding to the latest and greatest glucosamine-chondroiton cocktail I’d been throwing down! But maybe… I decided to keep it up.

Since then I’ve incorporated full-range squats into my workout routine and employ them at LEAST twice a week. If I go below that, my knees start to revert back to their just-post-surgery weakened state, and I begin to again fear injury. I can cut around the racquetball court faster, I now play basketball (occasionally, admittedly), I’ve started to run again. I have to say on this one… Jamie was right.

Just hiked 5 miles in rocky mtn natl forest and never got winded. Thank you jamie and john!
– Kari

Since joining CrossFit North Arlington I have dropped weight and inches and seen my energy and overall mood improve due to the training and nutritional guidance I have received. The training staff is knowledgeable, motivational and creative. I have not only seen results in myself, but in others that train with me as well. What the coaches have been able to accomplish with some barbells and medicine balls is amazing. Thank you XFNA!

“Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon.”

“We the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long with so little, that we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.”

“Worry looks down. Sorry looks back. Faith looks forward.”

“The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion when no one else is watching.”

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

-Aristotle.

“The greatest achievement a teacher can obtain is to be bested by his student.” – unknown

I am in earnest;
I will not equivocate;
I will not excuse;
I will not retreat a single inch:
and I will be heard.
— William Lloyd Garrison

“It’s you vs gravity. Make gravity your bitch.”

“Laziness will cause you pain.”

‘I make my practices real hard because if a player is a quitter, I want him to quit in practice, not in a game.’ Bear Bryant / Alabama

-Blood is replaceable. Sweat is expected. Tears are optional.

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” – Maria Robinson

“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can’t find them, make them.” – G.B. Shaw

Rocky Balboa: The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It is a very mean and nasty place It will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me or nobody is going to hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit, it is about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward, how much can you take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

Don’t hesitate to send me something if you come across a quote that speaks to you. I’d love feedback and additions to this page! Find something? Shoot me an email at jamie@dynorock.com